"WWE RAW" 7-5-10 Talkback (Spoilers)

[The Penguin]

Finish your Fourth of July weekend off (or just your Monday, depending on where you live) right with RAW. Tonight, the GM will announce his decision regarding The Nexus after their actions since being given WWE contracts.


http://library.toonzone.net/talkbacks/wwe.jpghttp://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e92/Shadow0285/RAW.jpgWWE RAW #893
Monday, July 5, 2010 @ 9 p.m. ET/8 CT on USA Network

ON TO THE 'NEX' ONE
Raw's anonymous General Manager promised to render a verdict on the futures of the NXT rebels (a.k.a. The Nexus) on the next edition of Monday Night Raw. After targeting Superstars and even Mr. McMahon, will this be the end of the young careers for these seven upstarts?


Please remember that not everyone reads spoilers for taped programs and direct or side comments about WWE shows that have yet to air are not acceptable in this thread. Additionally, spoilers for shows that air after the show that is the subject of this thread do not belong here.

[hobbyfan]

Ok, so the earliest Nexus can challenge for a title is October now. Excuse me while I look for someplace to safely barf. That doesn't seem to faze Nexus, as they're already trying to break up the united front that already exists, targeting Randy Orton. Too soon to turn Orton back heel, IMPO.

The anonymous GM developed a bit of character tonight, alternately channeling Stone Cold Steve Austin and Stephanie McMahon (the bit about Cena needing to be the better man is something Stephiekins would say), especially using two of Austin's signature catchphrases. And, so, Cole & Lawler act like a couple of tools not realizing what Cole's been reading!

I have to agree with Alicia about the fact that they've treated her title win like it was, as Cole put it, an afterthought. And then they go and give her & Eve 2:00. Does that seem fair? Hmmmmm, welllllllll, of course not.

Best part of the show was Arn Anderson's money promo on Sheamus. That is Communication 101, folks. Arn knows what he's talking about.

Not sure if Cena will even get a fighting chance in a handicap next week vs. Nexus, but he did start on his quest to take them down, with Darren Young the 1st victim. Draw your comparisons to any average slasher flick......

Are we looking at Oddities 2010 with Santino, Kozlov, & Khali? I guess Ranjin Singh's heel turn lasted all of a week. Yeah, the writers need to be replaced.......

The Usos need work on the mics. Enough said.

I know R-Truth suffered a groin injury recently, but did they really need to do an injury angle and eliminate him from Money in the Bank? Opens the door for someone like Zack Ryder or Goldust or Khali to take his place, but I can't buy Miz as a crippler type. He's overexposed and needs to be permananently separated from the US title.

Sorry, Edge, you ain't winning MITB, so shut up already.

Hate to say it, but the way they talk up Bourne in the match, he's going to be the new Shelton Benjamin.

And that's not really a bad thing.

No mention of a guest host next week, so maybe the talk about Florence Henderson might've been a hoax?

[Spike Mcdougal]

No mention of a guest host next week, so maybe the talk about Florence Henderson might've been a hoax?

Unless I missed it they didn't mention Rob Zombie hosting the week before either.

I still think that beating down Vince was a last second rewrite although I will accept "We had to beat up Vince to show he's not part of this." as an explanation. That said Nexus keeps saying they're beef is with WWE Management. Well who the heck is management at this point!?! Vince was about as high up the ladder as you can get and further down is probably the road agents and with the exception of Jerry Lawler they beat up several of them last week so who else is left?

[TnAdct1]

Ok, so the earliest Nexus can challenge for a title is October now. Excuse me while I look for someplace to safely barf. That doesn't seem to faze Nexus, as they're already trying to break up the united front that already exists, targeting Randy Orton. Too soon to turn Orton back heel, IMPO. It's likely that not having the Nexus go after any belts yet is a way to see if this storyline can be a long-lasting one. Remember, we're dealing with an "invasion" storyline here, and WWE wants this story to be like the nWo (an invasion angle done right) than the WCW invasion of 2001 (one that went completely wrong).


Best part of the show was Arn Anderson's money promo on Sheamus. That is Communication 101, folks. Arn knows what he's talking about. Especially when you're aware that Arn was with WCW around the time the nWo (the stable that served a major inspiration to the Nexus) was the "big thing" in professional wrestling.

[Lord Pumpkin]

Yeah, let's forget the whole Undertaker beating never existed on both Raw and Smackdown. It's like the whole WWE Universe has forgotten about that. The guy's been around for 20 years, and writers just threw that away that taker is now a vegetable.

[hobbyfan]

It's just that Vince decided that Nexus would be Raw-exclusive and had 0 to do with the Undertaker, though that was the most plausible solution. Real smart, Vince. NOT! Do us a favor, and retire.

BTW, if you live in NY or CT, did you see the Linda McMahon campaign ad during the Yankees-A's game?

[ToonFaithful]

I don't think Randy turned heel, he was just sending a message to Bourne that it is every man for themselves in the MITB match.

I thought that the GM was Stone Cold for a while but it could be somebody else. Was I the only one laughing at the end? I thought John Cena going ballistic was hilarious.

Can't wait to see what The Miz will do next week. He already trashed R-Truth last night and the thing I like about that scene was at the end when he did his own "I am the Miz" thing, he wasn't all arrogant like other times but serious.

You know, I was really excited for the "Nexus" angle but it's just boring now. All they're doing is ganging up on people.

[Azrayel]

What a boring Raw. The whole line up I could careless for.

I'm going to guess the GM is Triple H, since I think he is coming back soon and he has fought against The Rock and Steve Austin which is why he is using their catch phrases, also Triple H was in the era when they were still apart of wwe.

[langden alger]

As bored as i am with WWE right now, I'll still say that the GM is Micheal Cole. It just looks so obvious with the way he's up there always reading these statements. It would make the whole Daniel Bryan firing look like it makes even more sense. Even though they used the whole Barrett explanation, they could maybe just say that Cole further reinforced it or something. And the whole email thing could just be his way of mocking all of the internet fans he seems to hate so much. Cole is right at the cusp of getting that Vickie level nuclear heat as a heel GM. I could easily see it happening.

[cnfan91]

As bored as i am with WWE right now, I'll still say that the GM is Micheal Cole. It just looks so obvious with the way he's up there always reading these statements. It would make the whole Daniel Bryan firing look like it makes even more sense. Even though they used the whole Barrett explanation, they could maybe just say that Cole further reinforced it or something. And the whole email thing could just be his way of mocking all of the internet fans he seems to hate so much. Cole is right at the cusp of getting that Vickie level nuclear heat as a heel GM. I could easily see it happening.

I agree. I think they're just trying to throw us a curve ball by using Stone Cold's catchphrases to lead people astray.

Also, Stone Cold posted on his twitter last night:

"I missed it but it sounds like It was an interesting RAW."
about 16 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone

They've really dropped the ball with the Nexus storyline. I'm more confused about what their going to do next because as some of you have pointed out, they've already taken out McMahon. Who else is left of WWE management? Hopefully they'll take out the creative team for screwing up their storyline so bad. :p

[Kindness King]

Isn't it too early to say the Nexus storyline has flopped? :shrug:

Besides, between the mystery GM and the failed truce and the "no title match for three months", there's still quite a lot left to this. They haven't failed at anything yet. The rookies have been getting lots of heat. Heat = success last I checked. ;)

[Tapout]

While the anonymous GM via email thing is absurd from the get go, Cole is somehow managing to make it worse. He seems to be making up whatever he's saying as he goes along. He should be given something word-for-word to read every time he has to get up and read an email. That and him saying "attackeded" was just cringe TV all night.

[The Penguin]

It was a relief to see Wade Barrett back after just one week. I don’t know what would have happened it they had been without him for even one more week. Cena bringing a posse to take down the group after they learned they could was great. Sheamus leading an anti-attack was a bit of a surprise, but it played great with the sometimes referred to locker room dislike of Cena (a confrontation with Carlito comes to mind).

I’m confident that the GM throwing out some Austin catch phrases was just a red herring. I expect in future weeks for his messages to include: “If you smell what the GM is cooking?” “And that’s an order.” and “It’s Vader time!” (maybe not that last one).

I just realized that by firing Virgil, Ted, Jr. has taken the next step along the Ted, Sr. career timeline. Maryse is way prettier than Sensational Sherri though (may she rest in peace)—I think it’s the less make-up. ;) John Morrison didn’t allow himself to be distracted for long, but combined with the referee being distracted, it was long enough.

Unfortunately for William Regal, his RAW highlight was calling Santino & Kozlov “oxygen thieves.” I don’t know what going on with Great Khali & Ranjin Singh, but clearly there is nothing going on between the big man and Regal.

It’s old news now, but after he seemed to turn face in one of his last ECW appearances, I think I figured out what turned Kozlov back before he came to RAW (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apApXVKHytQ). ;)

The King’s introduction of what was the RAW Rebound the week before really brought this piece of the conflict up another level. It’s one thing to kind of know what it means based on just a fan level of respect, but to hear it articulated that way makes what Nexus did seem that much worse.

Following that with Arn Anderson’s interview/lecture to Sheamus brought things up another notch. I am very excited to see the eventual moment where Double A’s words will be echoing in the head of The Celtic Warrior.

I commented on the Luger/Yokozuna history segment in last week’s SmackDown talkback (http://www.toonzone.net/forums/showthread.php?t=270245), but it was neat to see it again.

Miz made R-Truth “disappear, like your favorite magician” ;) from the Money in the Bank ladder match with that brutal beat down. That was a level of intensity we haven’t seen from Miz before. Now more than ever, he’s showing that he is to be taken seriously.

The Cutting Edge showed the high level of tension still between Edge and Jericho even as they found themselves on the same side. After they started fighting each other, I liked how then they both went after Evan.

I greatly enjoyed the tag match. I’m excited to see Evan Bourne get another victory over someone on the top part of the card. I felt he was snubbed as a legit ECW Championship contender and it seems things are finally looking up for him beyond an impressive string of WWE Superstars (http://www.toonzone.net/forums/showthread.php?t=262435) victories. Maybe I’m wrong, but I feel like WWE needs to be careful with Orton going after anyone. I’m not sure if he is a solid enough of face for that.

Otunga, Slater & Tarver confronting Orton backstage about how Nexus could improve his position if he played ball was kind of neat. I liked seeing a few of them in the back like that.

Okay, so it’s Jimmy Uso that does most of the talking then? I know he’s the one in the pants when they’re in the ring, but that look doesn’t carry over to their street clothes.

Alicia wasn’t bad in her forced an interview, but I didn’t get a lot out of it either. Good for her I suppose.

It’s entirely possible that I just don’t remember, but the SummerSlam Recall felt like a new thing. This summer will be the 23rd event so it’s not a special anniversary or anything. Bret Hart vs. Davey Boy Smith was a big match back in 1992 and as we all know, the Bulldog would eventually lose that title to Shawn Michaels.

Alicia Fox faking an injury to beat Eve was a cunning move (perhaps like a certain animal ;) ). I said after she won the title that Alicia was the “let’s try something different” pick and we might just get that.

Wade Barrett showed why he is the deserving winner of NXT with the way he held his own in the ring with Cena. I liked how the segment played out, but I did not really like Cena destroying Darren Young. It is plausible with the way the RAW locker room ran off Nexus, but I don’t like the idea that Young may not get to compete in his first post-NXT match. I am not a Cena hater, I am someone that frequently complains about “Super Cena” but if Daniel Bryan being released didn’t destroy this angle, Cena destroying each member over the next seven (or less) weeks certainly will.



That said Nexus keeps saying they're beef is with WWE Management. Well who the heck is management at this point!?! Vince was about as high up the ladder as you can get and further down is probably the road agents and with the exception of Jerry Lawler they beat up several of them last week so who else is left?WWE Management is a nameless, faceless person or persons that is blamed or credited with things they don't want to assign to anyone in particular. Since anything "WWE Management" does is above what a GM can do and is assumed to not be Vince McMahon, I see them as the WWE Board of Directors, who don't make any actual TV decisions, but do in story line when required.

[hobbyfan]

For those of you hoping Triple H would come along and pick up the avenging angel mantle from Cena, it ain't happenin' right away. Word is that the Cerebral Assassin, fresh from back-to-back movie shoots, had tendon surgery recently on his arm, so his return has been postponed indefinitely, which allows him plenty of paternity leave with baby #3 due next month, according to recent reports.

It makes AA's words of wisdom to Sheamus that much more important, because they may have to hot-shot the Celtic Warrior into a face role down the road, depending on how long Hunter's actually going to be out.